I've selected the winner for the recent 'Name This Hat' competition - and the name for these patterns is now 'Ridgeway', suggested by Woolbothy. An email has been sent but if it hasn't arrived, please drop me an email letting me know your choice of eBook!

I loved the name; it suits both Hats well and offers a different perspective on the texture. Thank you to everyone who entered - there's bound to be a few more naming dilemmas in the near future; do keep an eye out.

During these last few weeks I've had to make some difficult decisions and send out some awkward emails. The situation here on The Yard is getting more complicated, which in turn is eating up even more time and making life even more uncertain. Given this, and given that I've only just got on top of a pile of pattern writing that's been waiting for months, sitting down and rethinking what would be realistic, work-wise, for the year ahead was a must.

After the fiasco that was last year, I'd deliberately kept my work schedule light. Deadlines and me really don't get along and allowances were made for how I thought the year might pan out. However: developments here over the last couple of weeks have changed all of that, and reluctantly I've had to pull out of a number of projects I was looking forward to working on because it really wouldn't be fair to not give them my full attention or worse yet, fail to meet a deadline 'cos life yet again has thrown a wobbly. I feel a bit rubbish about it, but it's far more helpful for them to know early on. I've not pulled out of everything, I'm still going to TNNA this June for instance, but my commitments now are pretty minimal, and everything on the list now is flexible enough to be achievable (if that makes any sense at all...)

Playful Woolly Toppers is still on schedule; actually, at this point it's a bit ahead which is good, as the next few months could be a bit rocky and I'd rather get all of this done while I can!

These are the finished PWT Hats as of this morning; each design has 2 samples, in different sizes and in different colourways.

2 are already published (coupon system to follow as mentioned previously) 2 are fully tested/edited & are waiting for modelling, and 2 have just gone for testing and will be ready for editing & modelling shortly.

The remaining 4 are in the development stage, with the designs pretty much done but still in need some tweaking on the needles. All but one of these 4 are waiting for their yarn to arrive.

Colour planning and ordering yarn for the last 3 has been a bit, erm, manic. It started so, so well last year at TNNA sorting out yarns, mixing and matching colours and getting the whole thing thoroughly sorted. Then the latter half of last year happened, which not only included the action being taken against us here & our community, but also included HMRC being absolute terrors by demanding a mini audit AND insisting that I hadn't paid my tax for an unrelated year, when in fact I had. All of this consumed any mental energy I had left (I did triumph over HMRC on both counts eventually) and everything came to a halt. It's good to be picking it back up again, but not so good to feel not quite so in control on the yarn/colour front.

A whole bunch of yarns have been ordered, and with any luck they'll get here soon so I can plough on. It's seriously tough trying to choose yarn colours on screen, especially for a project where each design needs at least 2 colours and where colour combos can't be repeated! The plan with the recent yarns has been to order more than is needed so I can choose with the yarns infront of me, rather than keep ordering in dribs and drabs. It's a more costly way of doing things, but it saves oh so much time and the colour decisions are always better this way. I'm not very good at having a stash, or having more yarn than I need, so I've no idea what I'll do with what's leftover! But hey.

I keep wanting to come here to tell you all exactly what's going on here on The Yard but as we're now involved in legal proceedings, and as a group haven't released a formal statement, I stop myself. It's all so ridiculously complicated and and full of so many 'maybes' that even if I could tell all, it'd be full of speculation.

And really, I'm finding it difficult. Not just the not talking about it, as that in turn makes me feel inhibited elsewhere, but also the whole damn mess. My black dog is going rabid on me and it's a good day when I *don't* have any suicidal thoughts. Community spirit is up and down like a yo-yo and living with the kind of uncertainty that may or may not mean we might be without a home come the summer is, frankly, bloody horrible. This isn't just affecting me or my family but every person and every family here. All together. The whole community.

It's the not knowing that's killing me. Like everyone involved I guess, we've been considering our options and developing a back-up plan; with a safety net in place it's a whole lot easier to stand up and fight. That safety net somehow involves us trying to save (earn) more yet at the same time, reducing my workload and not committing to anything.

Which really is as daft as it sounds.

Yet, it's kinda do-able, hence the rethink over work stuff... I'm directing my attention and creativity to those projects where the commitment doesn't outweigh the compensation. And hoping for the best.